KC Royals: Oops Ned Did It Again In Cleveland Loss

Oops I did it again. Words made famous by Britney Spears some 16 years ago. Thursday night, KC Royals manager Ned Yost could have made them the theme of his press conference after Kansas City’s 5-4 walk-off loss to Cleveland.

Instead, we heard, “We basically gave a game away today.” No, Ned. That was all you.

The Kansas City Royals have obviously been the hottest team in baseball. Thursday night, the boys in blue banged out 12 hits, making it 10-straight games with 10 or more hits – the first time in club history to accomplish that feat. The KC Royals were headed for a seventh-straight win until a series of unfortunate events – sorry, Lemony Snicket – resulted in a 5-4 walk-off win for Cleveland.

It was easy to criticize Yost before the game even began. Whit Merrifield has hit a blistering .360 in his 12 games since joining the KC Royals. After a slow 2-for-8 start, Merrifield has proven himself as a reliable infielder with multi-hit games in seven of his last nine contests.

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He had two hits against Tampa Bay on May 31, and two hits against the Rays again on June 1. Both nights he had a double, and one of those nights he missed his first home run by about a foot. But Yost decided he needed a rest just 12 games into his major league career.

Merrifield’s replacement Thursday night? Omar Infante. By now we all know of Infante’s struggles on both sides of the ball, and frankly, I do not want to bag on him. After all, Infante does not have the ability to put himself in the lineup on any given night.

Next: Omar Infante's Struggles

Omar Infante Has Been A Disaster For 2 1/3 Years

Last season with the Kansas City Royals, many lists put Infante at or near the bottom of all position players. With 440 at bats, he hit a paltry .220. His on-base percentage (OBP) climbed just 14 points to .234. To put that into perspective, there are 26 pages baseball players on the MLB statistics website.

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By OBP, one has to go to page 13 to find Infante, surrounded mostly by guys with fewer than 100 at bats in 2015. Seattle’s Mike Zunino is a rare outlier with 350 at-bats and a .230 OBP, but his numbers were held down by a .174 average. He had 21 walks compare to Infante’s nine with 90 fewer at bats last year. Infante’s OBP ranks last among all MLB players with at least 400 plate appearances in 2015.

But that was last year, right? Sort of. Infante has climbed all the way to a .239 average and .279 OBP this season in 134 at bats with the KC Royals. In just 50 at bats, Merrifield’s 18 hits were already more than half of Infante’s total. The one strike against Merrifield in this argument: his .360 average is the same as his OBP.

While last night’s loss is not squarely on the shoulders on Infante, he tops the list of reasons why the Kansas City Royals lost Thursday night. Infante went 0-for-4 at the plate leaving two men on base. The real mistake came in the eighth inning when Infante booted a throw during a routine double play. The Indians turned that mistake into a run before walking off in the ninth.

Next: More Bad Decisions By Yost